As a FTM, I do not know what is taught at that age. I'm a WOHM, and my son is in daycare full time. He is currently only 21 months, but he already knows all his basic colors (essentially rainbow colors + pink, we are working on black and white). He can sing the ABC song with very little help, and can count to 10. He knows some shapes (circle, oval, triangle, star, and octagon--believe it or not octagon is his strongest one, he points them out all the time when we are out and about). He knows some of his letters by sight, I'd say 8 at this point. (All the kids in his class sit by their letters at snack time, so he seems the letters and can tell me whose name starts with each of the letters: B,D,E,H,J,S, and O, as well as do it backwards (Like he can answer, what does Hannah start with?). He also knows X because he pointed at one and called it a star and I corrected it. I realize that all this knowledge is still very superficial. Like being able to count to 10 doesn't mean he could look at a group of objects and tell me how many are in it. Still, I honestly thought this was the kind of stuff they did in 3 and 4 year old preschool classes!! Since he already knows all this stuff and still has another year and half until 3 year preschool, I'm starting to really wonder what they will be teaching him. So, what DO they teach in preschool?

My 4 year old daughter is in NYS pre-k. It is school, not daycare. They do a lot of ritualized things, such as hanging up coats, reciting the pledge, picking a helper for the day, talking about the weather, having snack time, getting coats on. All that stuff is just as important as the ABCs.

They also teach letters upper and lowercase, until they know it 100%. My daughter has always been pretty amazing to us in what she knows, but until a month ago there were just a few letters that were a bit tricky. Like lowercase d and b. If you gave her one chance to tell you what it was, she might be right and might not. This stuff gets smoothed out and quantified in school. She read her first word a week ago. She's been reading books that the class has gone over a million times and so she remembers them, but last week she looked at one of her day of the week underpants and sounded out the word Sunday.

They do a lot of cutting and pasting, much to my daughter's dismay. If there's something she doesn't enjoy it's the "hard work" of cutting. But if you want to get an idea of the ideas behind what they do for that age, the above pdf is a good doc to look through.

they will work on sorting things into number (4 apples, 3 lemons)...they will work on...the watermelon is bigger than the apple.....they will do 3 apples are less than 6 apples....they will work on half and quart....oh and money recognition (dime penny quarter).....upper and lower case letters, vowels vs consenants (sp?)....seasons....buildings.....spacial things (on top, below, next to).....telling time.....cutting....coloring in lines....color by number(color all the 4s red, or color all the stars red)....physical activities.....balance activities.....coordination activities(usually disquised as play).....sounding out letters and combination letters....

There is a LOT they can work on but it does all build off of letter numbers and colors

My oldest is very bright and was very interested in learning ABC's, colors, math, etc. She learned to read the year she went to 4K (well, she spent 1/2 the year in 4K, 1/2 the year in just daycare, but she learned to read at home, on her own).
Your son may be similar. So what HE will learn is most likely things like getting along with others, sitting in a seat for short periods of time, taking turns, lining up, etc. My dd needed that from Pre-K/Kindergarten, not any of the academics.
But, like others said, they learn the basics like the ABC's, shapes, colors, writing their names, stuff like that.

__________________SaraWife to Bret , Mom to Kodi 9-10-00 , Owen 4-21-06 , Luke 8-21-07 , and our miracle baby, June 8-4-09 I'm ashamed of what I did for a Klondike Bar...

Keep in mind that learning academics is a very, very small part of being a preschooler. Kids who have never even learned to write their names before kindergarten still end up in the same place by third grade as those who were reading by age four.

There are many skills a preschooler will master before he goes to grade school. He will learn to cut, paint, create, draw a picture, then dictate the story that goes with it. He will learn to cooperate, climb, cross the monkey bars. He will learn to tie his shoes, (you will probably teach him that) ride a two wheeler, build, dig, etc.

Hopefully, they will hatch baby chicks, or watch tadpoles grow, or take care of a class pet.

At the preschool age, they are learning to be a group, cooperating, empathizing...They need to master small motor skills, and large motor skills, they need to make messes, get dirty, and come home tired and happy.